Still A Girl
by Tallie14
Summary: Sequel to "But She's a Girl" but can be read alone...Patrick, Teresa's childhood friend has moved back. I'm bad at summaries, but please check it out!
1. Chapter 1

With a yawn Teresa Lisbon sat up from the small bed she had been sleeping on, she stretched her arms over her head before falling backwards onto the soft blankets.

"First day of school" she said, a small frown on her face, she had to admit, she was exited too, this year was her last year, her youngest brother's were in grade eight, so even they would be going to high school this year.

With a tinge of sadness she almost wished Patrick were here, she remembered how much fun they had had in elementary school, but he had been forced to move just after grade 2, and Teresa hadn't seen her best friend since. The fact that Teresa didn't have a computer, and even if she did wouldn't know how to use it didn't help, she couldn't even e-mail him.

With a shrug she banished the thoughts and sat up on her bed, she looked over at her small alarm clock and sighed. It was already seven thirty, and if she wanted to catch the bus she had to be ready in twenty minutes, not to mention her brother's needed to get ready too. Ever since her mom had died five year's ago Teresa had been helping take care of them. Her father didn't help her, but he didn't hinder her either. Most of the time he was just out at friends, having decided his kids were old enough to fend for themselves.

Teresa jumped up from her bed and walked over to her dresser and pulled out the clothes she would need for school. Since she didn't have time to shower anymore she put her hair up in a messy bun before going across the hall into her oldest brother's room.

"Peter!" Teresa yelled into the room, the body of the fifteen year old boy groaned before sitting up tiredly.

"Time to get up" Teresa called again, walking over and shaking him awake.

"Tess, you seriously suck" he said tiredly, Teresa studied his messy brown hair and identical emerald eyes as he shoed her out of his room so he could get dressed.

"Tyler, Darien, get your butts up!" she called into the next room along the hallway, two more teenage boys looked up at her angrily, Tyler and Darien were Twins, identical Twins, even though they were thirteen they had, unlike most twins, stayed looked completely the same. The only way Teresa could even Tell them apart was because Darien had there father's blue eyes, and Tyler had their mother's green.

"Tess, your killing us" they said at the same time, there voices in sync.

"Next call's water!" she yelled into the hallway, as she made her way downstairs to go and make some sort of breakfast. Her father collected welfare, which was their only source of income, it was enough to live on…even if they didn't always get the best food, at least they had some.

She quickly popped some toast into the toaster before walking over to the fried to look for something to drink. Finding nothing, she went over to the cupboard and pulled out a five cent packet of cool-aid and poured a little bit in her cup to make some juice.

Just as she finished eating her breakfast her brother's all came down stairs still in their pajama's.

"Eat, and then get dressed" she told them firmly, as they all grabbed random things to eat. Teresa watched them with a little bit of anger towards her father. It was hard feeding three teenage boys, and if only her father would go back to work they could be rid of the almost persistent gnawing hunger at not having enough to eat everyday.

Teresa sighed and turned around, looking for something they could all share for lunch. The only thing she could find were some home-baked cookies she had made herself so she put what remained of them into baggies for her brother's.

"I'll get dad to give me some money for food tonight" Teresa told them as she handed them their snacks.

They all nodded, knowing full well that she probably wouldn't be able to get any. But to keep the hopeful atmosphere there, they didn't state their thoughts.

All of her brother's went upstairs to get dressed and within a few seconds the bus had pulled up at the end of their drive way.

"Bus!" Teresa yelled, grabbing her shoulder bag and running out to get on the school bus.

She stepped up the steps and nodded high to the driver as she went to take her regular seat. But before she could get there a voice interrupted her.

"Teresa?" it said, Teresa knew the voice sounded vaguely familiar. Within a second she knew, the voice was deeper than it used to be, but she would know that voice anywhere.

"Patrick!" she gasped, turning to where the voice was to see the him, beaming at her happily.

Teresa studied him for a second, his hair was still its blind color, his eye's seemed almost more mischievous, if that was possible, the fact that he had definitely gotten hot didn't get unnoticed, but it did get banished.

"I haven't seen you in so long, what brings you back?" she asked, immediately sitting beside him in the seat.

"We moved back into out old house, my mom and dad broke up so now I live with my mom and she likes it here better" Patrick explained, still grinning.

"Sorry they broke up" Teresa said, Patrick dismissed it with a shrug.

"But, I hope stuff gets better for you" Patrick said, still studying her.

"What do you mean?" Teresa asked, confused, nobody knew about her dad and her brothers, I mean they knew her mom died but that was about it.

"Well, your hungry, your tired, your obviously becoming a second parent, you can't afford new things" he stated.

"How?" she asked, obviously Patrick was even smarter than when she seen him last.\

"Your hand is on your stomach, a sign of hunger, your tired because I can see it in your eyes, your probably a second parent because your mom died recently, you didn't even have time to shower which probably means that you were taking care of someone else, your cloth's aren't new, neither are your brothers-" he cut himself off in order to take another breath.

"Patrick!" Teresa said, he breathed out and looked at her questioningly "Shut up" she added.

"You only said that because your tired" he teased "You were always annoyed with me in school, but you missed me"

"Smart ass" Teresa muttered as her brother's got on the bus and looked at the boy she was sitting with confusedly.

Teresa wasn't sure if she was so glad he was back anymore.


	2. Chapter 2

Teresa walked with Patrick as they got off the bus and started up the long cement walkway leading up to a bland looking school. Teresa wondered who all would be in her classes. Grace and Wayne were going out now, had been for over two years, so she knew immediately that they would be inseparable. Even Cho (Which is What Kimball had asked everyone to call him after about grade 4) seemed to be doing his own thing lately, he wasn't really romantically involved like the other two, but he seemed to always be reading a book.

"So, how's it been going since I left?" Patrick asked, bringing her out of her thoughts with a jolt.

"It's been okay I guess" Teresa said dismissively, she watched Patrick study her face apprehensively before nodding and smiling.

Teresa studied her brother's as they walked ahead of the two, Darien and Tyler joking around with a couple bubbly girls and Peter walking silently along, avoiding eye contact with anyone.

Patrick seemed to be studying her brother's too, but by Teresa's guess he was taking in a lot more than she was, even in Kindergarten he had been able to do that all the time. She remembered one time when they had been doing a word search together, Patrick had found everything on theirs and Teresa had been mad at him so he had got another one for her too do, but ended up not being able to hold his tongue and practically did that one too.

"Look at you remembering when we were little" Patrick cooed, like as if he was talking to a three month old not a seventeen year old, Teresa rolled her eyes and continued walking towards the office to get the slip with her classes on it, Patrick following her.

As she turned the corner and came into the crowded room she seen her other three friends already standing in line a little bit ahead of them. They seemed to see her too and beckoned her foreword to join them, but as they got nearer their eyes seemed to be looking at the person behind her, not her.

"Patrick?" Grace asked, the first to say what they were undoubtedly all thinking.

"Hi everyone! Long time no see!" Patrick said, beaming at them happily.

"Yeah!" Grace said "Last time I seen you was that time when we all had a food fight on lasagne day" she added thoughtfully, Patrick let out a laugh at the memory.

"No, I think it was the time he brought us all candy and we hid for half of the class in the bushes outside school eating them" Wayne said, correcting his girlfriend.

"Yeah, that was the time" Cho said in his emotionless voice, his lips almost twitched into a smile at the memory (Which is a big thing for Cho)

"Anyways guys" Teresa said, interrupting everyone's trip down memory lane " we still all have to get our classes"

"Me and Cho already got ours, we were just waiting for Grace" Wayne told her, stepping his 6'4 frame to the side to let her pass.

They all waited in line for another couple minutes until they had their slips before going back out into the hallway, crowded with students from the age of thirteen to seventeen.

"We already got our lockers over here, we'll meet you guys later" Wayne said gesturing towards the opposite way her and Patrick were walking, Teresa nodded and waved as the three people walked away towards their lockers.

"Sooo" Patrick said, putting his hands in the pockets of his jeans and grinning.

"I think they missed you too" Teresa said, her voice sounding like a weary sigh. She tried to pretend she didn't know the seventeen year old boy standing beside her wiggling his fingers in front of his face in a mini happy dance.

"Patrick?" Teresa asked under her breath a few seconds later, he stopped and looked at her, still smirking.

"Yes Teresa?" he answered.

"Can you stop acting like were still five?" she said desperately.

"Yes I can, but I don't really want to, I quite like having this little buzzing happiness" Patrick replied.

"You acting like your high" Teresa warned, seriously wondering if he was on some sort of drug or something.

"No, I'm not high Teresa" Patrick said, his little happy cloud seemed to have burst.

"Good" she said, raising an eyebrow in question at his sudden change.

"I started acting mature to please you" he stated, clasping his hands behind his back and walking like the teacher's did when they seen a student skipping or something.

"God help me" Teresa said, glancing up at the roof as if she was praying. But as she went to look back down she ran into someone who was walking towards her.

"Teresa!" the person she had run into said, Teresa stood up and looked who had knocked her down, she came face to face with a brown haired guy with grey eyes, who was looking at her with a smile.

"Move Jeremy" Teresa demanded, glaring at him angrily.

"Make me, Teresa" he sneered, standing up to his full height, at least seven inches above the 5'4 dark haired girl he was trying to intimidate.

Patrick studied the boy for a second before silently putting Teresa behind him and looking into the face of the boy trying to threaten her.

"Oh, your in my way" Patrick said, his voice sounding naïve as he looked over the boys shoulders as if searching for something.

"Could you move?" Patrick asked thoughtfully "Your blocking the only way to mine and Tess's locker"

"Tess?" the guy said, anger and jealousy seeping into his voice. He looked over Patrick's shoulder.

"You let this Bozo call you Tess, but you never let me" Jeremy claimed angrily, Teresa ignored the question, and within a couple seconds Jeremy moved and let the two people walk past, his angry glower following them as they walked up to Teresa's locker.

"He's an ass" Teresa said, opening her locker with the combination she had written in a piece of paper.

"Yes he is, what did you ever see in him?" Patrick asked her, an amused smile on his face.

"Why did you put your stuff in my locker?" Teresa asked when he reached in and grabbed out his binder from her, supposedly just opened locker.

"Were gonna be locker buddies!" Patrick told her cheerfully, handing her the binder and closing the locker with a loud clang.

"Come on, we have our first class together" Patrick told her, ushering the frowning Teresa towards their first class.

* * *

A/N - Tell me what you think of it so far, they are all a little OOC…well maybe a lot…but they will start to be more themselves later on.

- Tallie14


	3. Chapter 3

**Teresa sat at her house, her school work splayed out in front if her on the bed. She had to have it all done by tomorrow, which was easier said than done. **

"**Grade twelve has to be the hardest year" Teresa groaned, rubbing her sleepy emerald eyes with her fists.**

**She heard her stomach let out a growl and remembered with anger how her father had ignored her when she had asked for money. For some reason he thought she was going to buy drugs with it or something. This night they hadn't had any supper, but had snacked on bread and apples.**

**She sighed and rolled backwards away from the paper, falling onto her pillow and closing her eyes with longing to go to sleep. She hadn't meant to, but laying there she actually fell asleep.**

_**She was in elementary school again, but the school was empty, not a person in sight. **_

"_**Mommy?" the small Teresa called out tearfully, clutching her white dress in fear.**_

_**She knew her mom was gone, yet she couldn't accept it, she was repeatedly calling out to her, begging her to come back.**_

_**Then a boy walked past her, with a jolt of recognition she realized it was Patrick.**_

"_**Patrick help!" Teresa called to him, her voice high pitched, but the boy continued walking like as if he had never seen her…she seen her other friends, all of them walking past without seeing her or hearing her calling them for help. All she wanted now was to get out of the empty room, to escape the bland walls and closed windows.**_

"_**Help!" she screamed into the air, grabbing her head and kneeling down defeated she started sobbing uncontrollably.**_

"_**Anyone?" she asked, her voice a small whisper that echoed throughout the empty building… **_

**Teresa woke up with a gasp, her body was drenched in a cold sweat causing her hair to stick to her face which freaked her out even more. jerkily she swiped the hair away and looked around her room, the light was still on, for which she was thankful, but half of her homework had fallen onto the floor in a pile. With a shaky sigh Teresa stood up from her bed, ignoring the feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach she walked over to the edge of the bed and started picking things up. Doing anything to try calm her pounding heart.**

**Sighing she went down the hall into the kitchen and turned on the tea kettle and checking the time on the stove, which told her it was 4:00am.**

**Well she was waiting for the water to heat up Teresa walked back up to her room and grabbed her homework, she might as well work on it right now, she knew she wasn't getting back to sleep anytime soon.**

* * *

**Patrick studied his friend as she made her way onto the bus, within a second he knew something was off with her today.**

"**Hey Patrick" she said, smiling at him as she sat down beside him and leaned her head against the back of the seat, closing her eyes.**

"**Nightmares?" Patrick asked, in a worried tone, Teresa opened her eyes and sat up all to quickly.**

"**Just couldn't sleep" she told him tiredly, suppressing a yawn.**

**Patrick reached over and patted her on the arm soothingly.**

"**It's okay Tess, it's just a dream" Patrick whispered to her, Teresa glanced at him sharply.**

"**I know, and I'm not three, I don't need comforted" Teresa said in an annoyed and embarrassed tone.**

"**But it makes you feel better to have someone there for you" Patrick said cheekily.**

"**Shut up Patrick" Teresa said, a blush heating up her face.**

"**Your beautiful when you blush" Patrick teased, pinching her cheek and grinning at her.**

**Teresa slapped his hand away before grumbling something in-comprehendible…Patrick guessed at was some sort of curse towards him though.**

"**You guys are weird" came a voice from behind them, Teresa groaned realizing her brother was sitting behind her, probably laughing at her.**

"**Everyone is weird, Darien…even you" Patrick said wisely, turning around to face Dairen.**

"**How'd you know it was me?" Darien asked, confusion and interest flashing in his eyes, people could rarely tell him and his brother apart.**

"**You have the same eye's as Tess" Patrick stated, pointing to the in green eyes in question.**

"**Oh" Darien said, shrugging "Most people don't catch that"**

"**He catches everything" Teresa muttered, to which Patrick beamed.**

"**What's my favourite color?" Darien asked suddenly, hoping to stump him.**

"**Green" Patrick answered almost immediately.**

"**How'd you know?" Darien asked, Teresa was wondering the same thing but didn't state it.**

'**It'd take to long to explain it since were at the school" Patrick told him "I'll explain it later"**

**Darien nodded before getting of the bus.**

"**Are you actually going to explain that to him?" Teresa asked as they made their way to 'their' locker.**

"**No, he's already forgotten about it" Patrick said, putting his bag into the locker and grabbing out his binder.**

"**What's my favourite color?" Teresa asked suddenly, Patrick studied her for a second.**

"**Either Blue, or Purple" he stated.**

"**Well, both actually" Teresa replied, acting like she wasn't impressed at all.**

"**I am always right" Patrick said…Teresa winced and making his ego any bigger than it had been before.**

* * *

**A/N - Once again a little OOC, but I guess I should stop mentioning it every note eh?**

**Anyways, this chapter was a little bit shorter…leave a review and tell me what you think! ****J**

**Btw - my computer has a problem where it makes the writing go italic, underlined or bold when I didn't do it in the document…sorry about that.**


	4. Chapter 4

Teresa opened her eye's sleepily, rolling over on her bed she yawned and sat up tiredly.

She had been going to school for almost two months now and she still wasn't used to the hours she had to wake up.

Sighing she got up from her comfortably warm bed and walked across the room and grabbed some clothes.

She walked past her brother's rooms and banged on all of their doors, waking them up before going into the bathroom to have a shower. She was making an effort to stay quiet since her dad was sleeping in his room for the first time in a while, the night before he had gotten drunk at home. He hadn't actually hit her but he had almost. It had scared her that he was that violent when he was drunk, all she had done to provoke his raising his fist at her, was remark that he shouldn't drink around her brother's and her. Being seventeen Teresa could already care for herself, but she wanted to move out soon and didn't want their to be a doubt about her brother's safety.

With a sigh she got into the shower and was finished within ten minutes, dressed and everything. She put her hair up into a half pony tail, letting the rest fall halfway down her back, and got ready to go and get her brother's to wake up again.

Within half an hour all of them were downstairs munching on toast and fruit. Teresa's thoughts still stayed on her dad, passed out in his room.

She had no present or anything, and in only a couple weeks Christmas was coming up.

She looked at her brother's sitting in the kitchen, Peter sitting silently, like he usually was, Teresa had noticed how his new favourite color seemed to be black, but hadn't said anything.

Darien and Tyler were throwing toast at each other, seeing of the other one could catch it in his mouth, being more immature that even the normal thirteen year old boy, which is saying a lot.

Teresa smiled as she viewed her family, she wished her mother was here to see how all of her children had grown up. Tyler and Darien had been only seven when their mother had died, Peter only nine, it was hard on them, just as it was hard on her. All of the sudden Tyler yelling that the bus was here brought her out of her thoughts and they all hurried to run out the door and get on the bus.

* * *

The first thing Patrick noticed about Teresa when she got on the bus were her eyes. The emerald green caught the attention of the unsuspecting victim and drew he attention to her beautiful face.

"Patrick" Teresa greeted, sitting beside him, Patrick said hello back smiling as he did so.

"Long morning" Teresa grumbled, leaning back against the seat with a sigh.

"Hmm, well if you could get rid of the nightmares you'd feel more rested" Patrick told her, his voice sounding like he was giving her trouble.

"Yeah, because it's all my fault" Teresa said, her tone showing she was offended.

"Well, no, but you could fix it" Patrick told her.

"How is that?" Teresa demanded.

"Well, I could see what was bothering you with a light trance" Patrick told her "But you refuse to let me try" he pouted.

"Well, that's because it wouldn't work" Teresa said defensively.

"That's not even the reason you won't let me" Patrick replied.

"Patrick, just drop it!" Teresa snapped, her voice low.

"You need to talk about your feeling's Tess," Patrick told her, his voice almost a whisper.

"Well, right now I feel angry" Teresa said mockingly "anything else doc?"

"Why are you angry?" Patrick asked her again, Teresa glared.

"Because you keep on asking me stupid questions" she told him, as if it was obvious.

'Why are they stupid" Patrick asked, her, she didn't answer for a few seconds.

"You sound like a shrink" Teresa snapped at him avoiding the question.

"I'm not a shrink" Patrick said, a grin spreading across his face.

Teresa grumbled something incoherent and Patrick let it drop, they had arrived at the school, but now more than before he wanted to talk to her about it. He could tell something had been bothering her today, and he remembered, even after twelve years, his promise to not let anything happen to her…he planned on keeping that promise.


End file.
